PANAMA CITY
After reading Dr. Mubarak’s column in the July 3 edition of The News Herald (“Don’t use actions of extremists to tar all Muslims”) I became compelled to reply. While I agree with him that America is a beautiful country, his prevarications about Islam are less than pretty.
Dr. Mubarak says that Allah allows Muslims to marry only Muslims, Christians and Jews. What Dr. Mubarak fails to mention is that only Muslim men can do this. In fact, Muslim men can have multiple interfaith wives.

Muslim women, however, are accorded far less than that. In a fatwa issued in 2007 by the secretary-general of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America (AMJA), Dr. Sheikh Salah Al-Sawy states that marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man is forbidden and invalid, and that children born of such a union are illegitimate.

Though the Quran does speak of Jesus as having a virgin birth, more often than not Jesus is demoted to just a man by both Allah (Quran 43:59) and by Jesus also (Quran 5:116-117). Finally the Quran reveals that Jesus never died on the cross at all, much less rose from the dead, and that all Christians have been the victims of a deceit in this account (Quran 4:157), rendering Christianity (in Muslim eyes) as a fraud and an illegitimate religion.

As Dr. Mubarak says, Muslims believe the Quran is the literal word of Allah and not subject to any discrepancies, unlike the Bible, which was written by flawed (though divinely inspired) men. Dr. Mubarak even quotes tolerant verses. But as anyone who has even a little understanding of the Quran learns, that as Gabriel revealed more revelations to Muhammad that the very important “Verse of the Sword” (Quran 9:5) abrogates (renders void and replaces) previous chronologically written verses that preach tolerance, kindness and peaceful behavior toward non-Muslims. In research, I can find no evidence that this verse (nor any Quranic verse) is intended for past time periods only. I would welcome any proof of this.

As an American who believes in tolerance toward other faiths in our secular government, I’m willing to listen to Muslim apologists who wish to prove Islam a peaceful faith, and that Islamic extremism is solely the work of fanatics. Indeed, I strongly hope that this is true. But the more I learn of Islam and Sharia, and when I read deceptive half-truths, the less hopeful I am of this ever occurring.

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." — Anna Quindlen

I don't want that much organization in my life..I don't want other people thinking for me...- Jimmy Buffett -